Online service providers constantly are offering new services and upgrading existing services to enhance their subscribers' online experience. Subscribers have on-demand access to news, weather, financial, sports, and entertainment services as well as the ability to transmit electronic messages and to participate in online discussion groups. For example, subscribers of online service providers such as America Online or CompuServe may view and retrieve information on a wide variety of topics from servers located throughout the world. A server may be maintained by the service provider or by a third party provider who makes information and services available through the worldwide network of computers that make up the online service.
To forecast the outcome of future events, such as, for example, a political race, pollsters randomly survey the voting population. Similarly, providers routinely solicit customer feedback to assure that customers are satisfied with a particular product or service.
Presently, some web pages allow a viewer to vote on a particular topic and to see a running tally of the results. In general, the results obtained from such an online survey have little value because there are no measures in place to ensure accuracy.